


Pros and Cons

by IrisPurpurea



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Anniversary Gifts, F/M, Fluff, New Relationship, Pawnee, The Bubble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-09
Updated: 2018-03-09
Packaged: 2019-03-29 00:17:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13915314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IrisPurpurea/pseuds/IrisPurpurea
Summary: His first gift to her is a single piece of paper.





	Pros and Cons

Ben's first gift to Leslie is a single piece of paper.

It had been a week since he'd first grabbed her face and kissed her outside Chris's office in the late evening, with crumpled receipts in one hand. One week since their relationship began and he was already giving her gifts.

They'd been sitting cross-legged on her couch, discussing Egyptian debt relief, when he'd suddenly stopped talking, smiled, set down his hot chocolate (carefully, on a coaster he'd brought with him), and pulled it out of his pocket. A single piece of paper torn badly from a legal pad, hastily folded, tied with a piece of ribbon, and slipped into her hand, accompanied by dancing eyes and a mouthed "for you" as her ramblings trailed off into silence. As she took it, she was temporarily rendered speechless, looking down at the paper and back up at him and down at the paper and back up into his triumphant eyes again. How was he giving her a gift first? She'd been brainstorming gifts for him since before he'd kissed her and had already compiled quite an extensive list to pull from, but she hadn't expected him to be so on top of things. One week since their relationship began and he'd already managed to impress her.

"Wow. Um... thank you. Really," she winces, thinking she sounds ungrateful, but he understands what she means and simply moves to sit pressed beside her, an arm around her shoulders. "Thank you. I was... not expecting that."

"I know," and there's a hint of triumph in his voice, too. He'd better not get used to that, she thinks, smirking to herself. "Open it, go on." He's staring down at her with that look on his face, the look that tells her she's the most beautiful thing in the world to him. God, she loves that adorable look. She kisses him for it, he smiles even wider, and she looks down at the paper in her hands.

"Pro," she rests her head on his shoulder, "I'll be living in one place for a while. Con, I'll be living in the Pawnee Super Suites Motel. Wait, is this -"

"Yep," she feels him nod. "It's the pro-con list I made, the one you told me to make, when I was trying to decide whether or not to stay in Pawnee."

The page is neatly divided into two columns and every line is filled with his cramped handwriting. She has to admire his thoroughness, and she tells him so.

"Pro, I'll be working for Chris again. Con, I'll be working for local government, not state government." She leans further into him, nuzzling against his neck.

"Pro, I'll get to work to improve the town. Con, I won't get to solve accounting puzzles. Well, but it's not like your old job was all that great..." She looks up at him with a small smile. She'd experienced firsthand how much more himself Ben was when they worked on the Harvest Festival together. He was lively, enthusiastic, not at all the tired, wound-up, fascist hard-ass he'd been on the first day they'd met.

"Well I did actually enjoy the accounting part," he replies, giving her arm a squeeze. "But keep reading. I definitely address that concern."

Two more lines down the page, Leslie finds it. "Pro, it might be less depressing..." with difficulty, she slips an arm around his waist and pulls him even closer. He presses his cheek to her forehead. "Con, I might miss having things thrown at me - oh, that's not a real con!" she laughs, and he chuckles with her. 

"Yeah, I couldn't think of a con to that." He sighs and smiles down at her again. "It's hard to counter not being depressed." She doesn't know what to say to that, so she keeps reading.

"Pro, I'd be working with some passionate people. Con, I'd also be working with idiots. Hey!" 

"Ok, but Councilman Dexhart isn't anyone's ideal colleague." Leslie has to admit he has a point. "And you're almost there."

Almost there? She looks to the next line... oh. She blinks.

Pro: Leslie Knope. Underlined three times. Offset by a blank space in the cons column.

"Looks like the pros have it," he whispers. 

Oh. 

He has that look on his adorable face again, the one that tells her she's the most beautiful thing in the world to him. He takes her hand.

"You... were ultimately the biggest pro. Really, you were the only reason I needed to stay." 

She giggles. "We were just talking about Egyptian debt relief -

"I know." He smiles. "Just realizing that I was sitting here, talking Egyptian debt relief with my - my girlfriend... yeah. I'm glad I stayed." Leslie can only kiss him in response.

The piece of paper was left on the coffee table for the remainder of the night, but in the early hours of the next morning, it was pasted carefully onto the first page of a scrapbook, which made its way to Ben's desk just over one year later. 

The very next morning, however, Ben walked into Ann's office to find a dozen donuts shaped like the Enterprise waiting for him. From now on, he'd have to step up his gift-giving game.

**Author's Note:**

> Because he definitely showed her that pro/con list he made at the first opportunity.


End file.
